Zuma sends Info Bill back to National Assembly

President Jacob Zuma referred the controversial Protection of State Information Bill back to the National Assembly on Thursday for redrafting of two sections.

Zuma said he had, after considering legal opinion, arrived at the conclusion that the bitterly contested bill would not pass constitutional muster.

"I have referred the bill back to the National Assembly for reconsideration, in so far as sections 42 and 45 lack meaning and coherence, and consequently are irrational and accordingly are unconstitutional," he told members of the parliamentary press corps at a lunch meeting.

The statement, although widely welcomed, caused considerable confusion.

Zuma declined to explain why he thought the sections problematic and, as numbered in the final version of the bill adopted by the National Assembly, they did not tally with those set out in an explanation subsequently provided by his office.

It appeared that Zuma was in fact referring to sections 45 and 48.

Section 45 criminalises the improper classification of state information and provides for prison sentences of five to 15 years, depending on the level of wrongful classification.

Section 48 stipulates that the written authority of the National Director of Public Prosecutions is needed to institute charges in respect of any crime under the legislation that carries a jail term of five years or more.

Shortly after Zuma announced his decision, Speaker Max Sisulu informed the National Assembly that an ad hoc committee would be established to deal with the president's reservations about the bill.

Rising to address the Assembly, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele welcomed the president's decision, because it would strengthen the legislation.

Since the bill was adopted in April, Zuma has been lobbied not to sign it into law, but to refer it to the Constitutional Court for certification.

Asked why he did not take this route, the president responded that the Constitutional Court was not in a position to amend the bill, only lawmakers were.

"I sent it to the people who will fix what I think is wrong."

The bill was deemed a throwback to apartheid-era state secrecy when it was first introduced, and over almost three years of drafting the ANC was forced to retreat from some of its most controversial clauses.

But critics have insisted that it remained unconstitutional.

It is now unclear whether their objections will finally be addressed, because they revolve around more provisions than the two Zuma have referred back to Parliament for review.

Last month, the Nelson Mandela Centre for Memory called for the bill to be withdrawn and rewritten from scratch because, it said, it would create a regime of dealing with state information that ran parallel to that envisaged in the Constitution and the progressive Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).

"This was the basis for the secrecy and lack of accountability which characterised the apartheid system," it said.